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If there’s one thing the college lacrosse world can agree on, it’s that the season starts too early. This weekend’s glut of postponements, venue changes and cancellations was just another example. And yet, the season just keeps creeping earlier and earlier.
Why?
Because college lacrosse coaches keep chasing the outliers. To solve the problem, someone needs to push for a universal start date that isn’t nearly two months before the actual start of spring.
It can be done without pushing the postseason past Memorial Day – as some have called for – but it will require more midweek games and/or more weekend series with multiple games. That’s all it takes.
But coaches are reluctant to play more than one game a week even though the biggest event of the season – NCAA Championship Weekend – features two games in three days. That’s the same schedule every conference tournament format uses as well.
Beyond getting ready for the championship by playing games during the regular season on short rest, the numbers also show that the best teams also don’t have anything to fear from midweek games. Going back to 2016 (discounting the two COVID years), teams that made the final four went 40-7 in traditional midweek games and 40-3 if they played a game that weekend on short rest.
Cornell won two midweek games during its championship season last year. A final four team hasn’t lost a midweek game since 2019 when High Point upset both Duke and Virginia in the same season. Duke responded to its High Point loss with seven straight wins. Virginia responded with eight straight wins, and eventually, the national championship.
Bottom line. If your team isn’t good enough to handle a midweek game, they’re probably not a legitimate championship contender.
Rutgers and Jacksonville had the right idea with their Jan. 31 opener in Naples, Fla., for the Paradise Lacrosse Kickoff. It was far from an offensive explosion, but Rutgers picked up a gutty 11-10 win. Rutgers ranked 61st in the country in offense last year and topped 11 goals just twice in 16 games, but there were positive signs for the offense.
Junior Colin Kurdyla, a captain for the U.S. U20 team last summer, scored four times and looked comfortable as the alpha on offense. The effort came against veteran goalie Ryan Della Rocca (17 saves) and the Scarlet Knights did generate 49 shots. Boston U grad transfer Brenden Kelly scored a goal in his first game with Rutgers and grad student Colin Kelly scored the game-winner in OT and had a pair of goals.
Colorado also featured sunny skies and warmer temperatures on Sunday for Air Force’s impressive 13-12 victory over Lafayette. The Falcons scored 10 times in the first half and then held on for the win.
Life after Jackson Eicher on the Army offense may go through its young players. Senior Evan Plunkett ran the show in a 16-9 win over UMass, but the goals came from his younger brother, sophomore Hill Plunkett (career-high five), sophomore Brayden Fountain (two) and first-year Gus Bell (two).
Penn State’s Holuba Hall is a notoriously difficult place for goalies to play and the offenses were on point in the Nittany Lions’ 18-14 victory over Colgate. True freshman Preston Hawkins got the start in goal for Penn State, but he was pulled after Colgate scored three goals in the opening three minutes of the second quarter to take a 5-3 lead. Redshirt freshman Hayes Schreiner went the rest of the way to pick up the victory as sophomore Hunter Aquino poured in a career-high five goals.
Former Johns Hopkins star Russell Melendez had a hat trick in his Ohio State debut, helping the Buckeyes top Detroit Mercy 19-3 on Sunday.
8 • Failed clears for Delaware in its 16-9 loss to Utah on Friday afternoon inside the Chase Fieldhouse in Wilmington, Del. Utah took advantage of its aggressive ride, scoring four goals with the extra possession from the failed clears. The Blue Hens were just 15 of 23 on clears and committed 22 turnovers overall.
7 • Goals for Mercer’s Dillon Bush in the Bears’ 18-9 win over Hampton on Saturday. Bush, a Utah native, set Mercer’s single-season record with 39 goals last year.
8 • First-quarter goals by Denver in a 20-1 throttling of Cleveland State. Junior Cody Malawsky scored all three of his goals in the first eight minutes of the game. He’s going to be a handful for Pioneer opponents this season.
Faceoff wins for Syracuse's John Mullen in the Orange's 13-6 victory over Boston University. Mullen won 14 of 19 with eight ground balls and scored a goal in the win. Mullen, a junior, went over 400 career faceoff wins in the victory.
3 • Goals by Michigan freshman Luke Shannehan in a span of less than three minutes in the first quarter of the Wolverines 24-2 win over Mercyhurst. Shannehan is the younger brother of Boston University’s Timothy Shannehan (also on the U.S. U20 team last summer) who led NCAA freshmen with 61 points last season. The younger Shannehan, from Fairfield Prep (Conn.), finished his college debut with a team-high seven points on five goals and two assists.
4 • Career-high goals for Providence junior Rhett Chambers in the Friars 15-10 win at Holy Cross. Chambers, a member of the U.S. U20 team from last summer, added a pair of assists.
3 • Number of Monday games due to the weekend postponements. Johns Hopkins hosts Robert Morris (ESPNU) at noon, Duke hosts Bellarmine (ACCNX) at noon and Iona hosts Hofstra (Iona Insider) at 1 pm.
Brian Logue has worked at USA Lacrosse since 2000 and is currently the senior director of communications. He saw his first lacrosse game in 1987 - Virginia at Delaware - and fell in love with the sport while working at Washington and Lee University.
